How long do you have? As wonderful as Rio is, if you have the time try and get over to Iguazu Falls which are less than an hour’s flight away and really are one of the wonders of the world. Huge waterfalls bordering Brazil and Argentina basically. That aside Sugar Loaf is a must do, the views up there are fantastic, maybe try and catch a football match at the Maracana if you're that way inclined? Whether you like football or not a match there really is an experience. On most Saturday nights the Samba schools in the favelas open their doors to the public which again is a unique experience and certainly not something most tourists get to do / are aware of. Ask your hotel / guest house person though and I'm sure they'll point you in the right direction. They practice for Carnival all year round.

Other than that the city itself is a vibrant, colourful, noisy heaven really. Impossible to get bored. I lost entire days sitting on the beach people watching when I wasn't out and about doing the tourist trail. Keep your eyes open but don't get paranoid about things. Just be aware that for example the Leblon area (nice bit) is next to a huge favela, one wrong turn and you’ve got 12 year olds waving guns about. Oh and the women are beautiful.

yeah, I'm there for six days, though it's basically a work trip that I've extended with a bit of holiday so won't have all the time for sightseeing, though hopefully only really need to work for one day. I was planning on getting out to see something beyond Rio for a couple of days, but some people have said that, say, four days isn't really enough time to see Rio and I should stick around for the whole time... Igazu Falls look amazing, but I think it looks like a logistical ballache given I'm going, um, next week - I was thinking somewhere like Paratay if I did go out of town... thanks though, really useful...